Do You Love Me?
by NewRageInc
Summary: How should one respond to such an inquiry? Sprung so suddenly on to one with out warning or prelude, no signs to point that is where a person's thoughts were going. SasuHina fic for DA's NarutoAi. Theme: Summer Kiss. R&R One-Shot


"_He told you he loved you and you didn't say anything?" - Lexi Cooper, Where the Heart Is_

_I do not own Naruto_

**Do You Love Me?**

There can be no concrete answer as to why people lie. For the most part, many lies are told to get out of some type of humiliating experience, to avoid some type of situation. She never understood lying, always trying her best to be honest with others about most of what they asked of her.

"_Do you love me?"_

_When asked that certain question, her heart had stumbled, her breath hitched, her vision blurred. She searched for her voice and her brain fumbled for an answer. _'Do I love him? Do I? Could I?' _Hinata chocked a little and the person standing before her gave a start. She could not bring herself to look at him, but could only imagine the slight look of concern he would have painted carefully on his face. _

How should one respond to such an inquiry? Sprung so suddenly on to one with out warning or prelude, no signs to point that is where a person's thoughts were going. Did she love him? Could she say with all of her heart that this person had captured her? Tied her helplessly to him unknowingly or otherwise?

"_No."_ _Somehow her body moved, she found the strength to leave him as he stood stock still. _

She wondered now, laying in the middle of a grassy field, watching clouds float by contently, if she had really answered honestly. Why? How on earth had he been lead to ask that question? What was it that they were talking about? She furrowed her brow, her bangs sticking to her forehead as the sun shone proudly, hot as summer ever was, humid because of past rain.

'_He was talking about me…'_

But why talk about her? Who was she? A failure to her family, her village. He was trying to explain, she supposed, and she also guessed she couldn't quite understand where he had been going when he suddenly asked her.

"_Do you love me?"_

To love him. He, of all people, sounding unsure, clenching his fists at his sides as he looked to her, wanting to catch her eye. She refused to believe he could possibly want her to say yes. He who was sought after by so many, he who had those who cared for him more than anything in the world as a friend, a brother, a lover. She could never measure up to him, it was not a question of whether or not she loved him. She knew he would have been mortified if she had said yes. An attachment like that was unquestioningly wrong.

So if people lied to get out of situations, why does one so fond of telling the truth, decide to lie not only to another person, but very much to herself?

He had said such pretty things about her. Things she would have never thought another person would have used to describe _her_. He thought she was something else, something more than what she could possibly be.

She spoke to no one. They would laugh. Who would believe her when she went up and told them that Uchiha Sasuke had decided to confess himself to her? Or that she had the audacity to simply walk away.

'_He deserves more than that, so then why…'_

Why did her chest feel heavy? She felt like she couldn't breathe. The sky seemed less blue. The words people spoke held no life in them, life in itself had no real shine. Not like how it used to.

And yet…

She was sure she answered for the best. There was no way. No. None at all.

"All for the better," she murmured in the haze of cicadas, their sound resonating through the air. Hiding a soft rustle of grass as another presence approached the unsuspecting Hyuuga in her heavy line of thought. He stood, observing her as she lay in the grass, as beautiful as he ever thought she was, despite her damp hair and the pieces of grass sticking to her clothes.

"Are you talking to yourself now?" Hinata tipped her head back, squinting at a dark figure, obscured by the fact that he was standing in front of the sun.

"Ano, thinking out loud." The figure moved, revealing atramentous eyes gazing down at her with solemn contempt. Sasuke was the last person she would have expected to run into on this hot afternoon after not having heard from him for weeks on end. She pushed herself up, standing on wobbling legs, startled by his appearance.

"How have you b-been?" He shrugged, keeping his hold on her gaze. She couldn't handle that. She looked at his toes. "Y-You've been away for some time now…"

"Hn." Hinata felt the air feel more stagnant than before and her lip trembled. How malicious her feelings were being with her. She could not resist that dark gaze but was sad to find that whatever warmth they had held for her before seemed safely tucked away. His indifference cut through her like a knife through butter.

"It would be too late now… wouldn't it?" Sasuke furrowed his brow at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"I-I mean… Sasuke-kun, I l-lied to you, that time…" She lowered her head further, wringing her hands and worrying her bottom lip. "O-or at least.. I mean I-I-I-" He shifted awkwardly on his feet.

"Hinata, just spit it out."

"I lied to you when you a-asked if I loved you…" Sasuke stiffened, forcing himself to keep his features still. Hinata shook her head dismally. "Ano… But I-I suppose I am too late…"

"Hinata…"

"I-I _do_ love you… S-Sasuke-kun, demo, _Sasuke_." She looked up and inhaled sharply to find Sasuke staring at her, the first time she had seen him looking utterly, and actually quite surprisingly, amazed. He reached forward and grabbed her shoulders, searching for something in Hinata's face that she was unsure as to whether she could give. He took a step closer and a maddening blush crawled on to her face.

"So then, explain to me, why it's too late," he breathed. She gulped, mind racing, heart palpitating as she pulled for the answers she so desperately wanted to say out loud.

"I-I-I… I just thought…" A sudden breeze come upon them, disrupting the cries of the cicadas and the leaves in the branches around them. Sasuke leaned closer, grasping her chin and pulling her face upwards.

"You thought wrong." Hinata stilled as he closed the gap between them, she shut her eyes when his lips made contact with her forehead, the bridge of her nose, her left cheek, the side of her mouth, before finally catching her own lips. She could taste her on sweat from him, mingling with his own mild taste and this only prompted her closer to him.

This was the summer of dreams for most girls, a summer of dreams become reality for one Hyuuga Hinata as she let go of her inhibitions. They did not hear the exclamations of a furious Hyuuga Neji, shocked Sakura, nor the cat calls of one Uzamaki Naruto.

* * *

_Dearest Reader,_

_Please forgive this abrupt one-shot. It was written in a day (like pulling teeth out) for the group NarutoAi that is holding a contest with the theme of summer kiss. I hated the theme but couldn't resist. I've gone insane I assure you. I have been working on things, it's just slow moving, I'm in the middle of a block and this did not help at all. Though I have to admit I did enjoy how it came up. Inspired by a conversation between Novalee and Lexi in the movie/book Where the Heart Is. Leave me a little something._

_Much love,  
NewRageInc._


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